The present invention concerns a method and a system to provide objects, especially documents, multimedia objects, software applications and/or processes, to users of a telecommunications network. The present invention specifically concerns a method to provide objects to nomad users of a network in which the users identify themselves with an identification module, for example with a personal chip card, especially a System Identification Module, (SIM) card.
Telecommunications systems to provide data and objects to other users are already known. In these systems, also known as pull systems, various providers can file various objects and data at various nodes of a telecommunications system where they can be sought at the users"" initiative. The internet is a well-known example of such a system.
Users are usually connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) via the public telephone network. Generally, the provider of the telephone network does not identify the users personally; merely the used terminals are identified, regardless of the user, for billing of the telecommunication charges. The ISP generally requests a password for identification purposes but a large number of ISPs do not require an absolutely reliable identification. Anonymous and unreliably identified users can therefore also use the Internet. Furthermore, the identification of users is, as a rule, not passed on by the ISP to further information providers.
As the identification of the internet users is not reliable, it cannot be used to check the authorization of said users to access objects of a confidential nature such as private or corporate documents. Providers on the internet of confidential objects and documents, or of objects and documents that are not free of charge, as a rule require the users to identify themselves with a password before being able to access protected storage areas. In this case the users are directly identified by the provider and receive a first bill from the telephone network provider for the connection to the ISP, a second bill from the ISP for access to the internet and a third bill from the provider of objects or documents for access to the sought objects. This billing arrangement is rather inconvenient for the user.
Also known are mobile radio networks and other networks in which the users, often called subscribers, identify themselves with an identification module, often called Subscriber Identification Module, (SIM) is card in the form of a chip card. In these networks, the identification of the users by the network provider is very reliable and independent of the used terminal. The Global System for Mobile, (GSM) mobile radio network is an example of such a network.
The GSM network was developed primarily for voice communication between mobile users. The interface between GSM networks and other networks, for example the internet, is however also known and was among others described in patent application EP-A10841788 among others. Thus, subscribers to a mobile radio network can also access data filed by another provider at a host in the internet and receive these data for example on mobile terminals, for example mobile telephones or palmtops. A protocol for data transfer and for applications within a mobile radio network was specified among others in the Wireless Application Protocol, (WAP) forum.
Subscribers to mobile radio networks who access the internet with their mobile terminals in said fashion are identified only within the mobile radio network. This secure identification method by means of the users"" chip card cannot however be used by object providers in the internet to check access authorization of said users to protected objects. Furthermore, these providers cannot easily bill the access to users.
It is therefore an aim of this invention to propose a method and a system to provide objects to users of a mobile telecommunications network, wherein users identify themselves with an identification module and wherein identification is also used by various providers to verify access authorization to various objects.
Another aim of the invention is to propose a method and a system that can also be utilized by nomad users who are not linked to a fixed node in the telecommunications network. Nomad users are defined in this text as users who can log in from various nodes in a telecommunications network and whose identification is not dependent on their geographical location. As an example of nomad users one could cite subscribers in a digital mobile radio network, users of a fixed and PLC (Power Line Communication) network who let themselves be identified personally and regardless of the used terminal through an identification module in the network.
Another aim of the invention is to propose a method and a system wherein the providers of objects let themselves be identified through an identification module. Thus they can be identified reliably in order to enable them to administer the access authorization to filed data themselves.
The access authorization granted by the providers can be nominal or issued to the holder of a token. In the former case only users whose names or identification are on a list drawn up by the provider may access the objects in question. In the latter case, the users must obtain a transferable token to access these objects. These tokens contain for example an electronic key for the documents in question and can be sold or traded. Thus the copyright to a document, for example to a text or a multimedia document, may also be sold.